Tool Sharpening at Connie's

Hi Everyone-

I agreed to post an email about our get-together yesterday and the mini discussion Molly led with Connie, Kevin, Kimberly, Jason and me at the table. We also had a great time sharpening our tools and mending clothes, something we might do every year around this time as we put our gardens to bed. We laughed a lot and ate some great food.

Here's a quick review:
We are going to meet again in January. Please tell us a few Sunday afternoon dates that work for you.


Two ideas for that meeting were presented. Let us know which appeals to you as they are each deserving of a full meeting:

1. That we meet back at Connie's and do an intentional look at her property with permaculture in mind. If we do that, perhaps we could start by hearing (or reading beforehand) Connie's dream for the property, so we are looking towards that. We could break into a few small groups that would look at different parts and come back with recommendations. There are some folks in the community who Connie could then hire to do a more detailed design to get her started on implementation.
2. That we meet and do some reflection and planning about our group identity and the year ahead. How do those of us who want to meet face-to-face and do some work together want? Some of us want to do outreach to the larger community as well as skill sharing both among ourselves and as an outreach activity. Do you have other ideas for this meeting topic?
   

We talked about how we might all communicate with each other and have more discussion outside the meetings and it was suggested that the reply all function on the email can get overwhelming. Kevin said he could set up a list serve for the group, and if we do a good job of subject fields, we can get in on discussions that interest us and opt out of those that don't more easily.

I brought up the idea of marking the calendar with times that certain activities happen annually--like maple syruping in February, Canning & Freezing when we have surpluses, Tool maintenance at the end of the season (November). I would add to that perennial planting in March/April, and mushroom logs in March. We also discussed planning a talk (outreach) and Kevin told us he will be doing a talk on the spirituality of the soil at the Unitarian in February. Molly said she will do flyers to get the word out and that might be something many of us can try to attend.

Now that I have certification in Permaculture Design, I want to hone my skills as a designer. I'd like practice through our group (along with partners who want to do this kind of work).

As far as an intention for the group, I'd like to build a core or cluster around community design where we work on designing neighborhoods or properties that will serve more than one family or household. Is anyone else interested in that?

So, now it's your turn. What do you think you'd like to do in January? What did I forget to include here?